Saturday, November 3, 2012

Trip to Parque de Diversiones with Tutoring Center kids




As we are thinking about the end of the year with our work sites here, our team came up with a plan to take a number of students from the majority of our sites to the local amusement park.  The date of November 2nd was decided up because it was the last day of the 2 for 1 ticket prices, and we also discovered that the students did not have exams that day at school.  Jose, Diego and I went to talk to the administrators of the three schools that are kiddos attend in Los Guido, and it was such a positive experience to meet with them and see that they are thankful for what we are doing with some of their students.  They all also gave us "their blessing" to have the students going on a trip with us.  

Group shot of (most of the) kids and leaders
 We ended up being a group of over 60 people when all was said and done, which included students from my girls' club, the tutoring center, the bike club and Cailah's site.  It took a lot of organizing, sandwhich making, permission slip collecting, patience and collaboration, but the kids had a great time and all were safe.  I spent most of the day with girls from my girls' club, and it was a blessing to get to see them enjoy the rides and be kids.  They live in a neighborhood that is rough at times, and they don't often get out and do special things like this.  And I know they will be talking about the trip for a long time to come.
Tutoring Center kiddos

Tutoring Center kiddos with Jose and intern Karis

Fun friends

Lunchtime at the "zona verde" together

Chatting as we walked through the park
Girls' club girls
This makes my heart happy

Fun day!  This roller coaster was my favorite ride, reminded me of all those trips to Magic Mountain growing up.  :)

Thursday, September 27, 2012

English Class at the Tutoring Center

My friend and co-worker Diego approached me several months back about the idea of teaching an English class for some of the guys from his soccer team.  I had gone to a few of their indoor games and on the beach trip with them over the summer, and apparently after that they shared with him that Tara is "tuanis" and "pura vida," which both, essentially, mean "a cool person."  And because they know I'm a teacher and work in Los Guido at the Tutoring Center, they wanted me to help them with English so they could better communicate with our teams from the States and also to just be able to actually use English rather than the little practice they get with it in their schooling.  I have never taught English to teenage boys before, but because I have a heart for Los Guido and the kids and youth that live there, and because I enjoy teaching English, I agreed!  

I am happy to say that I know have two weeks of English classes under my belt and it's been a lot of fun!  We meet in the tutoring center for a little over an hour on Tuesday afternoons after my tutoring students have gone home and the boys have gotten out of school.  The first week we did a few activities where they got to know me a little bit and I also got to know them.  I also had them do a little questionnaire for me to let me know what kinds of things they would like to talk about and learn about in our class.  Overwhelmingly they told me that want to talk about 80s music (and music in general), soccer, food and their families.  Easy enough.  However, if you know me very well, you probably know that 80s music is NOT my favorite decade to choose from.  I will admit that there are some good songs though, so I'm willing to give it a shot.  :)

This past week I went with an 80s artist that we all know and love, Jon Bon Jovi.  We first talked about rock stars and what kinds of things we thought that they ate, how they traveled, etc.  Then we learned a bit about Bon Jovi's daily routine by reading a passage about him.  Then we learned some vocabulary words from "Livin' on a Prayer" and sang it with the words afterwards.  Of course, we also had to watch the music video to the song too.  The guys seemed to be really excited to learn about a singer that they had heard before and liked, and it was a great way for me to get them to read, listen, talk about and learn in English.  We ended the class by reading Psalm 55:1 together and talking about praying to God about whatever is on our mind and hearts.  The homework for the week is to memorize this verse and be able to say it for me next week.  We'll see how it goes! :)

Here are some pics from our class this past week:
Asking my students to tell me what they think rock stars do.

Sentence frames for my students to say in English

Reading about Bon Jovi.  It is our dream to have a pull down screen to use with the projector in the Tutoring Center.  :)

Reading about Jon Bon Jovi

Filling in the missing lyrics to the song

English class week 2!
  

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Tara Talk: 15 dias de vacacciones

The Costa Rican school year runs from February to December.  So we have a mid-year vacation in July, Vacaciones de 15 Días.  Take a look at the various vacation activities that went on this July.

Tara Talk: 15 dias de vacacciones: We are right in the middle of the two week "winter vacation" that the kiddos around here have off from school.  We also have a team here dur...

Tara Talk: Friday mornings at the tutoring center

Here is a peak at one of our teachers, Tara Frantz, recently wrote about the tutoring center:

Tara Talk: Friday mornings at the tutoring center: Fridays are one of my favorite days of the week at the tutoring center.  The pace is different, our activities are different, and it's a ti...

Monday, July 16, 2012

Introducing Tara as a new Tutoring Center teammember

Hello there, my name is Tara Frantz and I am the new co-leader/teacher at the Tutoring Center.  I have my own blog that I write but wanted to share some entries from time to time that have to do specifically with what is going on at the tutoring center.  The entry you'll find at the link below is my perspective on what a normal week at the Tutoring Center looks like.  Enjoy! :)

Tutoring Center 101

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Meet José Malespin

José Malespin

I came to Costa Rica from Nicaragua when I was 14 years old. I’m the second of four siblings. My mother made the decision that I should keep up with my education, even though our economic needs were a lot. After high school I went to college and graduated as a math teacher. My mother was already a Christian when I was born, so I was educated in Biblical principles in my first years. Her love for sharing the gospel was my main example of serving God. I accepted Jesus at 8 years old, but I committed to God seriously at 17. Since my teen years I was involved in the youth ministry at my church, mainly in teaching the Bible. I always had this feeling of doing something important for the kingdom of God that would benefit people. After graduating from college, I started to pray about this feeling in my heart and being able to have the chance to give my skills and knowledge to God.   However, I didn’t know what, where or when.

Current Ministry 

I heard of Students International through a friend, and after a long period of praying and looking for direction I decided to apply for this ministry. God has given me the chance of working for him through this ministry and finally I feel that I’m doing something for which I was called. At present, I’m working in the Tutoring Center, one of the six sites that S.I. has in Costa Rica. In this site I help the kids, giving them extra help with their formal education, homework and interaction with other kids. Also, we communicate to them about God’s principles hoping they become people with values who help their families and influence their communities. Many of these kids have been living in families with problems like alcohol, drugs, violence and family disintegration. I can understand now that all my struggles and hard moments in the past were necessary for being prepared for this ministry. This ministry is making a change in the hearts of these kids, and I pray they can find in Jesus the light they need to lead their lives down a better path.     

Friday, January 20, 2012

A New Year!

After a very full Christmas Break, the team is back in Costa Rica getting ready for the new school year. After some basic maintenance and cleaning, the Center will kick the year off with some great activities to help get kids excited about this school year. Rather than doing the tallers--special art, sports, or science activities-- before Christmas as we've done in the past, we decided to save them to help start off the new year. Everyone is very excited! Keep checking back to follow along with the adventure!